[QUOTE=theMan-Bat;25248697]I certainly don't want an angst ridden "poor me" Clark Kent being reluctant to become Superman. One of the things that audiences disliked about Singer's Superman Returns was the angst ridden, brooding, moping, sad Superman, rather than an upbeat, positive, inspiring Superman. The majesty of Superman was missing. Cavill's Superman is looking even more consumed with angst than Routh's did.
I prefer an upbeat, positive Superman who actually smiles, exudes warmth, confidence, is recognized as a hero and inspires others, as Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster intended.
I see Superman being feared by the general public as an example of going too far in attempts at "realism," and an attempt to create angst in this case, contradictory to the classic Superman mythos. Even in the early comics by creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Superman was admired by the general public and recognized as a hero.It makes sense that the majority of the public admire and trust Superman as a hero as traditionally Superman's very public altruistic behavior is established early on. Superman has traditionally publicly used his abilities morally to assist humanity, helping those in need, saving lives in broad daylight, performing acts of charity, and Superman traditionally smiles and is friendly, has a natural Midwestern charm, looks and acts completely human, is outwardly positive, open, doesn't even hide behind a mask, and traditionally gets positive press reports from reporters Clark Kent and Lois Lane. Superman was meant to be a positive role-model, and to be a positive role-model the people must trust in the moral core of Superman.

I prefer to focus on what I enjoy....An uplifting Superman and the fantastical mythic sci-fi elements of Superman are what I enjoy, not an attempt at grounding Superman in dramatic angst in the name of "realism."[QUOTE]

Actually, that's not really the case for me. A realistic Superman doesn't show angst, or much of it, but shows something else that grabs audiences: complexity and depth. Sure, he could be uplifting, but we can't ignore that he is an alien, and how that can be reflected back on us. We always feel like we don't belong, and Superman himself has even admitted (from Geoff Johns' Superman and the Legion of Superheroes) that no matter how much change in his life he experiences or not, he still feels like an outsider. Earth One even took a step further by showing a Clark who didn't know what he wanted to be, but it wasn't a superhero. Which, btw, I can never understand why people dislike that plotpoint idea; is it because we know the ending? Because someone whom we know becomes something but before he does he wants to become something else, is believable. I can buy that, as anyone else would. Now, MOS is going to show us something new: a guy who is afraid of hurting people around him, so he becomes isolated. That's new and something we've never seen. Besdies, when I realized that, the one thing that came into my mind was this: Superman's "world of cardboard" speech from JLU.

So yeah, these things that Nolan/Goyer/Synder are doing for Superman; it's not to make him dark and angst-ridden, but to give character complexity and depth to make him more believable in our world.

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Originally Posted by theMan-Bat

In 2001 and 2002 Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones had been recent hits for 20th Century Fox and The Matrix had been a hit for Warners in 1999, so Warners favored JJ Abrams/McG's Superman FlyBy project (2001-03) featuring a Krypton that doesn't explode and looks like Tatooine in Star Wars, Superman fights using Matrix-style martial arts and Luthor is in the CIA, can fly and also fights using Matrix-style martial arts, and so on, which would have been essentially just a Star Wars/Matrix rip-off. JJ Abrams script changed way too much Superman mythology. McG wanted Johnny Depp as Luthor, Topher Grace as a gay Jimmy, Selma Blair as Lois and Henry Cavill as Superman. Behold, Superman FlyBy's Tatooine Krypton...
McG's Superman FlyBy was trying to cash in on recent hit movie trends of the time and largely ignoring the Superman mythos.